Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of artificial pistes or textile pistes for winter sports.
Brief Description of the Related Art
Artificial pistes are moving belts, flat support elements or mats, produced, for example from plastic elements and which are configured as gliding surfaces to be used by winter sports equipment, such as but not limited toskis or plastic toboggans. The artificial pistes have already been known for several decades. A wide range of systems exist which can replicate the properties of snow-covered ski pistes with a greater or lesser degree of success. These properties include, for example, the guidance of the winter sports equipment, the gliding behavior, the absorption of impacts and the risk of injury from the artificial pistes.
The flat support elements or mats are installed to enable movement on the flat support elements or mats using cross-country skis, Alpine skis, snowboards, ski jump skis and plastic toboggans, as well as snow tubes, on both level or inclined surfaces. In this context, a substrate onto which the artificial piste is laid can be natural soil, concrete, etc. or of framework supporting elements.
In addition, the artificial piste can also be used in the form of a continuous belt in moving belts. This circulating artificial piste can be traveled on using traditional cross-country skis, Alpine skis or snowboards.
In the present disclosure, the artificial piste is a textile piste and is formed from a woven fabric. This woven fabric is characterized by good glide and wear characteristics as well as by a grip similar to that of snow. The artificial piste can be used in the sports and recreational sector with sports equipment, such as but not limited to cross-country skis, Alpine skis, snowboards, ski jump skis and with toboggans and snow-gliding equipment.
The woven fabric has a surface and is formed from weft threads and warp threads. The warp threads are made of slippery as well as wear-resistant and cut-resistant plastic material, and by means of loops the warp threads form on the surface a kind of “knop structure”, i.e. a structure with a number of protuberances. The sports equipment sinks into this surface. This results in a track being formed in the surface of the woven fabric and the sports equipment is thus guided. This enables turns can be executed using Alpine skis and snowboards in the same way as on snow. Because of the knop structure, even a leg push-off phase with a skating ski is perceived as being performed on snow.
The woven fabric can be additionally stabilized or fixed with a backing coating applied underneath the woven fabric. For use in a continuous belt, the woven fabric is applied to the surface of the continuous belt.
Large-surface downhill artificial pistes as well as cross-country ski tracks are composed of a plurality modules of the artificial pistes. These modules are affixed to the ground by means of straps and ground spikes. The modules are connected together by bonding, welding, sewing, hook-and-loop fasteners or zippers.
Artificial pistes for winter sports known in the art consist of injection molded plastic grid panels, for example. On approximately 2 cm wide ribs of the grid, plastic pins of the same height are disposed which are intended to function as a replacement for snow. Mats made up of slats onto which plastic rods are affixed are known for ski jump and tubing applications. Large surface mats of tufted or woven pile fabric (e.g. UK Patent Application No GB 2 394 902) are also known. In this case, the pile thread consists of synthetic monofilament yarns or film yarns. French Patent Application No. FR 2 772 053 describes an artificial piste or glide surface based upon a lattice-structured knitted fabric using monofilament yarns.
The German utility model No DE 20 2011 105 370 U1 describes a glide fabric, the glide surface of which is formed of pile loops or pile tufts. The pile loops consist of multifilament yarn or fiber yarn. These yarns are produced from man-made fibers.
The German patent application No DE 2318415 A teaches a cross-country track for the classic technique. The tracks are laid individually on the ground. As a glide surface, each track comprises plastic panels which are provided with scales to increase the static friction between ski and plastic panel during the leg push-off. The track guidance is accomplished by means of square sections attached laterally and open towards the top at an angle. Grooves are formed in the profiles for positively securing the plastic panels.
In the German patent application No DE 102005062711A1, a glide surface, which is formed from knops, is described. The glide surface is coated with fluoropolymers. In the wet test and when using lubricants, a friction coefficient of less than μ=0.06 is attained with respect to the ski.
The German patent application DE 288982A5 teaches artificial ski tracks, in particular for ski jumps. The special modules described therein have air vents in order to create an air cushion for reducing friction between ski and substrate.
A base area made from plastic material with knops made of a ceramic material arranged thereon in a grid pattern is described in the German utility model DE 20211137 U1.
In the further development described in the international patent application WO 2008151748 A1, the protuberances can be exchanged. The material and the shape of the knops varies.
The German utility model DE 1871540 U describes a cross-country skiing track for training in the classic technique. The track consists of a synthetic profile and has grooves in the glide direction on the glide surface.
With all systems, irrigating the glide surface or treatment with lubricants reduces friction. The irrigation must occur permanently, however, since these systems have no water storage capability.
These artificial pistes have not been sufficiently adapted to practical requirements, and these deficiencies can be summarized as follows:                the frictional resistance between the sports equipment and the surface is very high in all systems;        the guiding characteristics of the sports equipment are inadequate;        due to design and material factors, with most systems the risk of injury is high to very high;        the installation of the systems is sometimes extremely expensive;        in order to obtain reasonable gliding or sliding action, the majority of systems require permanent irrigation;        the prior art systems have no water storage capability.        